


Christmas Wishes

by narrywings



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-21
Updated: 2014-12-21
Packaged: 2018-03-02 17:22:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2820182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narrywings/pseuds/narrywings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry's hoping to go home for a quiet Christmas - but everything gets derailed when Niall calls unexpectedly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas Wishes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [storuns](https://archiveofourown.org/users/storuns/gifts).



* * *

 

 

The busy chatter of Heathrow airport in the middle of December isn’t the most comforting sound in the world. The overcrowded, packed to the limit vibe that’s going off is also kind of distracting, if not extremely annoying.

He has to admit that it was all very poor planning on his behalf. The thought of busy airports hadn’t really crossed his mind when he’d agreed to go home for Christmas. Although if he was being honest the thought of busy airports had been the last thought on his mind as he was laughing at his mother recent exploits and her recounts of Gemma’s adventures during their highly expensive international call.

She’d been eager to have him home for Christmas and he’d been eager to see them The thought of actually spend time with them during the Christmas holidays was something he’s been craving. Plus there was the fact that he had presents to drop off. It would be killing two birds with one stone he guessed.

Yet now as he was pushing his way through the crowds of people, all desperate to get home for the festive period, he couldn’t help but slightly regret his decision. The airport security had already been made aware of his arrival of course, and they’d been quick to send a couple of hefty looking guys to form an almost human shield around him as he made his way through the airport. It always made him feel bad, the thought of other people having to become the embodiment of human shields just to defend him.

Sudden buzzing from his pocket distracts him momentarily and he glances down to his side, pushing his hand into his jeans and pulling his phone from its confines. A familiar name flashes across the screen coupled with a candid shot of the caller that he’d taken in secret. Wistfully he smiles and presses a thumb to the screen bringing the phone to his ear.

“Hey” he calls cheerfully into the receiver shooting a quick smile to a couple of girls who are staring in awe as he passes.

“Harry!” Niall yells sounding more than pleased to hear him. “I take the flights landed?”

“Yeah just landed actually, how are you?” he asks smiling at the sound of the others voice – another thing he’d found himself craving of late.

“I’m good, I’m good. Listen I was wondering if you fancied stopping by – that is if you’re jetting off anywhere else. It’s just I’ve got your Christmas present, and I know I might not see you now till the New Year”

Harry pauses slightly as he reaches the doors of the airport, glancing about for his car that he’d left before jetting off to the States.

“Urm yeah, sure, don’t see why not” he answers slowly.

The question had thrown him slightly, not that the mental images of him and Niall snuggling up under a Christmas blanket had helped.

“Great!” Niall replies eagerly from the other end, hardly giving him a chance to take it back. “I’ll see you in an hour or two then?”

“Yeah I guess you will” Harry confirms dragging a hand down his face and wondering just how he manages to get himself in these situations. It’s not that he didn’t want to see Niall or anything. He guess he just hasn’t been _prepared_ is all. The fact that he’s been having to hold himself back from kissing the blonde senseless lately is something that requires a lot of will power, and the fact that he’s just got off an 8 hour flight from LA doesn’t help with such things.

Sighing he unlocks his car before lifting his suit case onto the back seat, and then heaving himself into the front. He takes a minuet to gather himself, rubbing his eyes tiredly while thinking about the long drive ahead. A second later his head drops to the side and catches sight of the plastic bag on the passenger seat.

Niall’s Christmas present…

He faintly wonders whether or not Niall will actually like it. For the last week he’d been mulling it over whether to take it back and get something else.

In all honestly he had no idea when he’d begun to see Niall differently to the others – but it had definitely happened at _some_ point. The wild dreams he’d been having lately were a testimony to that.

Niall was just _Niall_ and he was just _Harry_ and somehow that was enough for him.

Not he’d ever be able to admit that Niall. It was bad enough that he was sure that Liam had caught on. Although publicly announcing that he would “do Niall” probably didn’t help his case…

He slaps his face to his face in frustration and promptly realises that he must look insane to anyone watching.

The ride over to Niall’s place takes about an hour and half – although that was to be expected. Traffic in London can be intense, and everyone clearly wants to get home for Christmas. Again it begs the question of why he’d decided to come back on Christmas Eve and not sooner.

None the less Niall’s already got the front door open by the time he pulls up with a full blown grin on his face, dressed up in a simple white t-shit and his signature black jeans, as he watches him struggle up the steps.

“Hey!” he calls to him practically pulling him in.

“Hey yourself” Harry replies arms already around Niall scooping him up into a hug.

Is it strange to think of Niall’s scent as comforting he wonders to himself? Naturally from being in close quarters with all of the lads on tour and such he was familiar with all aspects of them. But there was just something about that was again so clearly different from the others. So it was only expected that he’d found himself wanting to be around the other so much – at times even going as far as to deliberately seek Niall out.

Even now just being back in his company again somehow puts him at ease.

“-rry? Harry? Harry!”

Niall’s hand shaking his arm pulls him from his confused thoughts and he pulls back from Niall, feeling the heat in his cheeks rise as he realises he’d been stood simply holding Niall in his arms for far longer than necessary.

“Sorry! Was miles away” he says fumbling for a decent excuse as Niall stands rolling his eyes at him.

“You’re always miles away recently. Did you catch too much sun in LA or something?” Niall jokes shuffling into his living room and beyond into the kitchen.

“Something like that” Harry calls back kicking off his shoes and following Niall into the kitchen to find him reaching for glasses in the cupboards.

He smirks slightly as he catches Niall standing on his tip-toes fingers barely skimming the glass on the top shelf.

“You okay there?” he asks, knowing that Niall will turn and scowl at him…

Which he does.

“Shut it Styles. Bressie was over the other day. Tidied the place up a little, must have shoved the glasses on the top shelf as revenge” Niall mumbles back.

A sinking feeling forms in Harry’s stomach as Niall explains. It’s not that minds Niall hanging out with other people… Okay well maybe he does. But not because he _doesn’t_ want Niall to be other people – because that would be extremely selfish and controlling. It’s just he doesn’t like people getting _too_ close to Niall, doesn’t like the idea that he could _lose_ Niall to someone else. Which might be seen as a little selfish really…

But what can he say? He’s head over heels, 100% gone for the lad.

“Honestly” Harry says with a sigh. “I thought you were meant to be self-sufficient, Mr “I-don’t-need-a-girlfriend-I-can-look-after-myself” – what happened?”

“Hey! I can look after myself. But we’ve been away for _ages_ and I didn’t exactly leave the place in a decent state is all”

Again Harry smiles fondly as he watches Niall switch the kettle on. He drifts again thinking about a world where he and are together, coming back home again after being away for long on tour. They’d collapse into Niall’s sofas (because he still hasn’t invested in a permanent residence in London as of yet), and maybe fall asleep together for an hour or two. Then maybe get up at some point – if they felt like it – and he’d make them something to eat (order in). Niall would likely cling to him and whine about getting up and he’d force him to put his stuff in the wash, and Niall would try and bargain his way out of doing it. Of course he’d lean over and kiss him to try and change his mind, and maybe they’d get distracted with _other things…_

“Oi”

Ah, but things aren’t like that.

“Sorry”

“Yeah, you got distracted again didn’t you?”

“Guilty” Harry laughs as Niall throws him an unimpressed look.

“ _Anyway_. Did you want a drink?” Niall asks raising an eyebrow at him.

“Sure, what are you having?” he asks.

“Lemon and Ginger of course. Throats been playing up again” Niall tells him pouring hot water into his mug while rubbing at his throat distractedly.

Of course Harry makes a face at that. He’d never been fond of Lemon and Ginger herbal tea – even the smell of the damn things was awful. That tea was half the reason he was always burning candles on the tour bus, that and the stench of Louis’s feet.

“I take it you won’t be wanting one of these then?” Niall laughs as he turns to see Harry crinkling his face up at his mug.

“Yeah… Have you got any fruit juice in?”

“Possibly some orange juice in the fridge” Niall tells him nodding his head in the direction of the appliance.

For once Harry’s in luck and he finds an un-opened carton resting just inside. Seems like Niall had found the time to stock up while he’d been back – unless Bressie had gone as far as to pick up Niall’s shopping while he’d been tidying the place up…

He mentally slaps himself at the thought.

“You’re not going back to Ireland for Christmas then?” he asks as they trail back into the living room.

“Nah, Dad’s over at Greg’s this year anyway. Mum’s obviously already sorted so I figured I’d spend it here instead” Niall tells him dropping down into one of sofas.

Naturally the explanation throws Harry off somewhat. Niall’s always quick to go back to Ireland after all.

“What about you? Didn’t think you’d actually come back so late. Couldn’t believe it when you told me”

“Yeah, I spoke to mum over the phone and she said it would be nice for me to go back home this year. I figured I might as well since everyone was spending it with family this year – I’m driving back up to Cheshire after this”

 Niall pulls a face at him slightly frowning as he glances to his window.

“You do know they’ve said there’s going to be torrential rain tonight right?” Niall asks taking a sip of tea.

Harry frowns back at him and glances outside quickly.

“Don’t joke about that” he sighs leaning back.

“I’m not!” Niall laughs. “It was on the weather earlier – there’s going to be storms, hail, and everything”

“Brilliant…” Harry mutters taking his phone from his pocket and double checking the weather around Cheshire and the general vicinity idly.

He really hates it when Niall’s right.

Pictures of vicious looking storm clouds greet him accompanied by nasty looking data about wind speeds. It’s all he needs right now.

“I’m a horrible driver at the best of times on the motorway” he sighs dragging his hands through his hair. “But motorways plus high winds, storms, _and_ hail? That’s just _asking_ for trouble” he says thinking over his options.

“You could always stay over until it passes?” Niall suggests casually finishing off his tea and planting the now empty mug on the floor.

Harry flicks his eyes over to the blonde noting the fact that he looks so calm about this. But then why wouldn’t he? He’d just asked his friend and fellow band-mate to stay over. It was no big deal to him. But to Harry… Well it was a _big thing_ in his mind, since only 15 minutes ago he’d been picturing them getting all _domestic_ and coming home together after a long gruelling tour.

“Y-you sure?” he asks, and of _course_ Niall laughs – because _it’s no big deal_.

“Course I am! Don’t be stupid, you can stay in the spare if you like” he tells him. “I’d ring your mum though – you know let her know you’re not goanna be down tonight”

“Yeah, I’ll give her call now” he says hoisting himself up and into the hallway to make the call.

It suddenly looks like he’s spending Christmas with Niall – and the other boy seems oddly completely okay with this unexpected turn of events… Had he planned this or something?

“Okay sure I’ll just go set the spare room up. Haven’t used it in a while…”

Harry raises an eyebrow as he watches the other rush upstairs. Niall was acting… Odd?

Whatever he thinks, shrugging it off as he finds his mother’s name in his contacts list.

She’s quick to answer – something that doesn’t surprise him. No doubt she’d been sitting by her phone all afternoon worrying about him as she always did. Naturally she’d disappointed that he won’t be there – again he’s surprised – but she agrees about him not coming down due to the bad driving conditions.

He’s just about to put the phone when he hears the first bout of rain start outside, large raindrops attacking the glass of Niall’s window unrelentingly. His mother laughs hearing it, and tells him to have a good Christmas while telling him to send her best to Niall.

It’s at that point he sees Niall rushing down the stairs looking a little flustered in the cheeks.

“You okay?” he asks blinking as Niall ducks his head.

“Urm yeah…” he says slowly and clears his throat. “The spare bed urm, there aren’t exactly any clean sheets or bedding for it…”

Harry blinks owlishly for a second taking in what Niall had just said.

“What?”

Niall goes a little redder and shuffles from foot to foot uncomfortably.

“When Bres came over he sort of urm, went really mad with the “spring cleaning” thing. Said that all the sheets should be washed since I’ve never really changed the ones in the spare room since I don’t have people over here much” Niall explains bashfully. “But the washing machines not exactly big enough. So he took them away to get them done at the cleaners…”

At this point Harry’s pretty sure that someone’s got it in for him.

“So there’s nothing to put on the bed?” he clarifies sighing as Niall nods. “Well that’s fine – I can sleep on the couch”

Niall’s head jerks up so quick he’s pretty sure the boy’s got whiplash, and he’s clearly horrified by the suggestion, judging by his wide eyes.

“ _What?!_ No way! You’re the guest here…”

Harry laughs at his reaction and shakes his head.

“It’s no big deal! Honestly I don’t mind”

But Niall shakes his head and frowns at him.

“No way – I was going to suggest, if you don’t mind that is, I’ve got like a king-sized bed and all. So… I mean, I wouldn’t mind, if you’re okay with it, you could always you know”

Harry’s now definitely sure that someone hates him – scratch that _despises_ him.

“Are you asking me to share the bed with you Horan?” he asks, trying to sound coy to cover the sudden heart attack he feels he’s having.

“It’s not like that!” Niall tells him and Harry’s pretty sure that all the bloody in the blonde’s body has gone to his cheeks right now.

“Hmm sounds like it to me” he says leaning a little closer to his face all while trying to remain as flirty and seductive as he can.

“So what if it was?” Niall then says out of nowhere.

It’s as though everything stops.

Harry’s backs off a bit and stares back (slightly down) at Niall. His arms are folded and he’s looking off to the side pointedly.

This is… Unfamiliar ground right now. Something he’s not used to with Niall. Bubbly, hyper, musical Niall who’s always smiling and slightly grouchy first thing in the morning.

“Wha-what do you mean?” he asks.

“What if I was asking you to share the bed with me?” Niall asks again – still not looking back at Harry, purposely avoiding his eyes.

For once he’s lost for words with Niall, the normal teasing that he can so effortlessly go back and forth and maintain with Niall is gone.

For once it’s awkward between them – and he has _no idea_ what to say.

“I erm…”

“Forget it! I’ll take the couch” Niall then says making a move to go back into the living room and set himself up.

“Niall!” Harry calls following him back in.

There’s no way he can let this go! Niall had been being serious just then, the look on his face said it all. His hand quickly reaches out and snag a hold of the other boy’s wrist turning him to face him again.

“What?” Niall asks eyes downcast – and Harry’s sick of him avoiding his eyes at this point.

He places a hand under his chin and gently (because he doesn’t want to annoy the boy any further here) raises his head so as he can looking at properly.

“Were you being serious? About the bed thing? Because I don’t mind honestly”

Niall again looks shocked, almost dumbfounded at Harry.

“I-erm… Yeah I guess” the older boy admits trying to glance away again.

But Harry doesn’t let him, he keeps a firm grip on his face melting into a smile.

“Then it’s fine right? We’re friends after all!” he tells him cheerfully.

Something’s clearly wrong though because a second later Niall’s face falls again and he gives a dejected nod – and that hurts.

“You’re frowning again” Harry comments a wave of unease swelling up inside.

“It’s nothing! Just thought about something” Niall laughs waving it off and clapping his hands together. “Anyway-”

“No” Harry cuts him off. “Something’s bothering you. After I said it was okay, you frowned again”

There’s a pause as Niall drops into the sofa and plants his face in his hands.

Harry panics and sits down next to him, crowding into his space in an attempt to offer some kind of comfort.

“Niall… Seriously what’s wrong?” he says gently, wanting nothing more than to wrap his arms around the other boy.

“Liam said to be direct…” he hears him said through his hands. “But I don’t think I’m much good at that, or at any of this…”

Harry finds himself pulling back again for the second time that night. Just what was Niall going on about – and what did _Liam_ of all people have to do with this?

“Be direct about what?” he finds himself asking cautiously.

“About this” Niall then says lifting his head from his hands and leaning up to him.

A second later Harry finds his lips pressing against warm, slightly chapped lips. It’s not “magical” and there are no fireworks going off in the background. But there is Niall, he’s there next to him, hands fumbling for his, and holding them tightly as though he’s ever so slightly afraid to let go.

Almost too soon the blonde pulls back though, shooting as far as can away from him to the other end of the sofa. Of course Harry won’t lie, he’s disappointed at the action and wonders what he did wrong.

“Wha-”

“I’m so sorry!” Niall apologises quickly, a panicked look falling across his features.

“Will you stop cutting me off already” Harry demands scooting down the sofa towards him. “I think I get it” he tells him. “You were dropping hints all evening right? About us?”

There’s a small nod from the blonde, and a silence follows.

“You like me?”

Another nod, and yet more silence.

“Be honest – are there really no clean sheets?”

Another stretch of silence follows his question.

“I shoved them all in the airing cupboard in my room” Niall mumbles.

Harry can’t help but laugh at the other.

“Well I guess we won’t be needing them anyway” he tells him winking as Niall turns to stare back at him.

“Wha-” Niall goes to say.

“Well we’ll be sharing your bed won’t we?” he says smirking teasingly. “That is if you want to?”

Niall seems to catch on and laughs in return.

“Are you asking me to share the bed Styles?”

“What if I was asking you to share the bed with me?” he asks back.

 

* * *

 


End file.
